May Coup

Józef Piłsudski and his followers during the coup

May Coup was a coup d'état that happened in Poland in May 1926. It was organised by the former Polish leader and national hero Józef Piłsudski to remove the "weak" democratic government from power. It started on 12 May and ended on 15 May.

Piłsudski and his followers were victorious and the Polish democracy was replaced with an authoritarian regime that remained in power until the German invasion of Poland in September 1939 that started World War II. After Piłsudski's death in 1935 the regime became more and more radical, with regular persecution of the political opponents, never changing into totalitarianism though.

References

• Joseph Rothschild, Pilsudski's Coup D'État, Columbia University Press, 1967, ISBN 0-231-02984-5.